APC withdraws from Akwa Ibom re-run

Hours to the Akwa Ibom State re-run, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has withdrawn all its candidates from
participating in the elections today.

The Court of Appeal had ordered re-run election in Essien Udim out of the 31 councils of the state for the senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly seats.

Before the APC’s last-minute withdrawal, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, was the only candidate that expressed his desire to withdraw and gave his ticket to Ekperikpe Ekpo. But the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) insisted that the senator was APC’s senatorial candidate, arguing that the substitution came when provision for such had already elapsed.

Addressing a press conference few hours ago, the state chairman of APC, Mr. Ini Okopido, said that the party had withdrawn from the re-run, alleging “unhidden hatred” of the party by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini.

He stressed that the party was dissatisfied with INEC in the state.

According to him, the party has sued INEC for failing to affirm the election of Nse Ntuen to represent Essien Udim in the House of Assembly.

“We have officially, as a party, withdrawn from the re-run elections in Essien Udim. We are so dissatisfied with the conduct of INEC in Akwa Ibom.

“As far as we are concerned, Igini has shown unprecedented bias against APC. We know he does not like APC in Akwa Ibom and if he conducts any election in Akwa Ibom, the party will withdraw. Igini has not been fair to us as a party,” he said.

But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state said that Ntuen might have misunderstood the judgement or was ignorant of its consequences.

Its Publicity secretary, Mr. Ini Ememobong, stated, “Ordinarily, we would have ignored the statement or treated it as one of the comedy skits that Ntuen is now famed for, but the timing of this show is too critical to be ignored. From the tone of his statement, it is clear that both Ntuen and his lawyers have either not read the judgement of the Court of Appeal, or are completely ignorant of the language and consequence of that judgement.

“But even at that, the various courts that they have approached, both in Uyo and Abuja, via motion ex parte, seeking to stop the re-run election of tomorrow has dismissed their suits, with very harsh
words.

“We urge the voting public in Essien Udim to go out in their number and exercise their franchise freely tomorrow at the elections. We know that this withdrawal is a ploy by Ntuen and his folks to employ humongous violence in Essien Udim in the hope that they will not be held responsible.”